Growing Season

Inside these familial walls,

I became whole.

A seed stems from their love.

The pressure is building.

This room is dying.

Two hands adorned in gloves

Please lift me so high

It's almost time

The cord will be cut

My limbs unfurling

Open my eyes

Force me to see the periwinkle sky

and fluorescent lights

Let her feel my breath, so heavy

As tears fall to her chest, ready

To expose me to yellow brick roads

and parent teacher scolds

To sober nights

and suburban strip mall flights

My face of crimson shade cries

as animated albino crows

croon in the blue light

I'm ready

to grow beyond the familial walls

which made me whole

I am destined to dissolve,

like punctured plastic

on the Lake Michigan shore.

And although it may just be

the greatest morning of my life

it will be a moment

I can only surmise.

The water will break

and I will drink

against my will

in naive delight

---

Written by Kristian Zenz

Artwork by Jean Dexter Sobon

Nine to Five: Poetry and Art is available September 5.